Guest Review: Witch's Pawn by Toni LoTempio

Due to some scheduling difficulties on my part, my dear friend Reyna – also known as @nana5675 on Twitter – kindly agreed to review for our reading pleasure Witch’s Pawn by Toni LoTempio. Witch’s Pawn is a paranormal mystery available in paperback from Echelon Press Publishing and can be found on Amazon right here.

Waiting for Fairies would like to send thanks and smooches to our sweet nana-friend. Now, without any further ado, here is your special guest review!

Reading Witch’s Pawn was an interesting journey. The author manages to both surprise you (as in, OMG there can’t be more to this story can there? What happens next?!) as well as scare you (I will admit to a moment of looking at my OWN black cat with the eebie-jeebies).

The tale follows Charity Jordan, a soap opera producer whose life quickly turns into a saga worthy of a daytime serial. With a troubled and tragic past, and a precarious mental state, Charity is still doing a great job of holding things together. When the hunt for answers to her past troubles coincides with a new Gothic plot line for her show, Charity takes her entire cast and crew to Benders Crook, Massachusetts to film. The location of her sister’s tragic demise makes an excellent foil for the scary adventures in store for her actors. What Charity doesn’t know is that more than just coincidence is pulling her back to Bender’s Crook.

The old mansion in Bender’s Crook has inside it a portrait of Estelle dela Bourdeax, a witch who plagued the area many years before. When she notices the portrait’s uncanny resemblence to herself, Charity starts to suspect that something is wrong . She worries for her santiy when she begins to have flashbacks of memories that can only belong to Estelle.

As the descendants of the townsfolk who burned Estelle at the stake begin dying under mysterious circumstances, local historian Allen Grant becomes frantic to enlist the aid of the local police. As Samhain approaches, the danger to everyone grows. Until, at the strike of midnight, Charity and Estelle face each other in the final climax.

Our special reviewer-correspondent did note that some aspects of the plot were a wee bit predictable. This should not, however, be taken as abject criticism – as there is a reason many of us buy movies on DVD and watch re-runs on television. Because we love knowing what’s going to happen! If you love paranormal mysteries or just plain want to pick up something a little bit different, we say give Witch’s Pawn a shot. Toni LoTempio has provided a rousing, frightening tale.